The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 11: Recap & Discussion

The Walking Dead Season 7 Episode 11: Recap & Discussion

Hostilities & Calamities

Out with the old and in with the new. Eugene’s warmly welcomed to The Sanctuary as Dwight’s thrown into a cell for allowing Daryl to leave. Negan visits Dwight to question him on the whereabouts of Sherry, who disappeared the same day as Daryl. Negan orders him to bring her back and they’ll sort it out after.

Later, Eugene’s given a tour of The Sanctuary and talks to Negan, who asks if he’s intelligent. Eugene recites his (false) history of working as a doctor on the human genome project. Negan asks if he can make the walkers stand upright and Eugene miraculously comes up with a solution involving a smelter. Negan rewards him with the company of his wives and forces Eugene to thank him for it. That night, Eugene hangs out with them and they ask him to make a bomb, which he does.

The next day, Dwight searches for Sherry at their old home. He finds a note and compares the handwriting to the note instructing Daryl to leave; they’re the same. It was Sherry who helped Daryl escape. He then discovers a note she wrote him, where she outlines how she’s leaving him for good since how he’s become everything he didn’t want to become. “I loved who you were, I’m sorry I made you into who you are. Goodbye, honey.” she concludes.

That night, Negan’s wives ask Eugene to manufacture a cyanide pill to euthanize Amber, who’s wildly depressed. He’s hesitant but eventually agrees. The following day Eugene pulls rank while gathering supplies for the pill, and shames one of the lower Saviors into giving the ingredients to him. Dwight returns to The Sanctuary and tells the doctor he killed Sherry.

After making the pill, Eugene’s taken to the main hall where an iron’s being prepared for someone. Negan swings Lucille at the doctor, who Dwight framed with Sherry’s note. Thinking he allowed Sherry to let Daryl escape, Negan torments the doctor until he chucks him head-first into the furnace. Negan tells Dwight he’s sorry about Sherry and Dwight says he’s not.

Dwight’s wives threaten Eugene to give him the pills but he pulls rank again and refuses. They call him a coward and leave. Later, Negan pays him a visit to ask who he is. “I’m Negan, I was Negan before I even met you,” Eugene blurts out. The next day, Eugene oversees his plan to melt the walkers into the fence. Dwight visits him and Eugene re-affirms, “WE are Negan.”

What jumped out to you about the episode? Do you like Eugene’s new role? Will Dwight ever find Sherry? Tell us in the comments!

Overall I enjoyed this episode. I like full of shit Eugene so much more than the whimpering one. I also liked Dwights story and development. The end scene with him and Eugene was almost a “I know your lying” moment. Dwight I’ll defect. Now it appears Eugene might be the catalyst. Honestly I thought Negan’s wives were trying to test Eugene’s loyalty. Until of course Negan three the good Doctor in the fire. As for Negan… JDM did great as always. I think Negan works best in small doses. Anyhow, I’m certain Eugene is just playing the game. So yeah, good episode.

To each there own. I am honest when I don’t like something. Primarily Jaidas far fetched ” I’ve forgotten how to speak English correctly” group. This episode was an oscar winner compared to last episode. I enjoyed it. Was it awesome and action packed? No. But it was decent charachter development. Previews for next week left me underwhelmed.

That’s your opinion. And that’s why these forums exist so we can all voice our opinions (which are rarly unanmous). I don’t think it was the best I’ve ever seen but just because it wasn’t action packed and full of bloody scenes doesn’t make it bad. It was very interesting, well acted and gave us insights & set ups for future episodes. You’ll see soon enough.

Eugene’s a coward. The ones with the best chance to kill Negan were his wives. He is doing the same to Negan that he did to Abraham. With all the stuff about the top secret project. I hope that Rick gets enough weapons for everyone and takes their whole group out. It would be nice to see the group of women with weapons show up and help in fight. But I doubt it will happen. We’ll see how it unfolds during next two episodes.

Eugene is playing the game. I think the last scene with him and Dwight was more a veiled hint both are not “Negan” than anything else. Eugene is a survivor. Throw cowardice? Yes. But he is very smart in how he has survived.

Exactly. I have a feeling Eugene is going to be instrumental in Dwight’s escape, or at least him turning to Rick’s group.

Or, maybe that won’t happen at all. With Daryl in the game, is Dwight really needed in the show’s future? Dwight’s development in the graphic novel has been awesome. However, there is no Daryl around of course, and they are somewhat similar.

Yes, Eugene is and always has been a coward, but he is smart. I’ve always thought he could go either way because he goes w/whomever has the power to protect him. But it does appear to me that he’s still with us. He actually now has a means to kill Negan. But even though people can get close enough to him to kill him, what are the ramifications of that act? Would things get better or would someone take his place and make thing even worse? So Eugene (and Dwight) must strategize and wait for the right moment to make any sort of move.

Dwight is the most interesting character. I don’t have a clue what he will do. I love that about him. Umm…I don’t know who story syncs, but I’m pretty sure Dwight shot that one Savior he was sent to bring back. Anyway! Eugene is kind of annoying. Is he who he says he is, or is he not? Who the fuck just “knows” a bunch of stuff to the point of making bullets and cyanide capsules? I know stuff, but I sure as fuck can’t make a cyanide capsule from pharmacy purchases. I feel this episode shows some of the harsher truths of Negan. No way is he as secure in the way he runs his camp. In the real world he would have been assasinsated long ago, by the girls especially.

Eugene is not annoying. You need to pay attention to understand what he does and who he is. He’s not in cahoots with any “genome projects”, but he is a doctor in biology, he reads a lot, likes studying and etc. “The genome project” was only to make Abraham and Rosita to secure his ass, while on the way to Washington.
And no. Eugene is not “just knows”. Again, you need to pay more attention. Rewatch the scene with him and Negan talking near the fence of walkers. Eugene is one of a kind.
Well,that is why you’re not Eugene, bro.

No, he wouldn’t have been assassinated. Humans love being slaves. There’s really a lot you should read about human’s mind and what drives us, but speaking VERY quickly – having this kind of life makes their existence less depressing. Negan provides rules and a stable life, if you follow them. Fear and stability – two of his instruments to rule. But those who have potential and don’t want to feel like slaves – Negan takes them, breaks and makes officers out of them or whoever you want to call it.

“by the girls especially” – you are very wrong. It reminds me of an episode of SOuth Park, where they had a special class for girls to learn how to marry a man and not to work. Only a couple girls were not excited by it.
With apocalypse running around and death awaiting you everywhere any feminism would go down. Because usually all the “isms” come right when you have no fear for your life and when you basically have all you need to live.

Speaking shortly, Negan provides comfort with only one demand – stay good-looking and lay down whenever Negan wants you to. That is all they need to do to have no worries about tomorrow. Even I as a male would have accepted this offer, hah.
None of the girls are forced to live how they do. They chose that life to avoid working or being under someone else (except of Negan). Any girl can leave and become a worker, live by points. But no, “she can’t work”. Sure she can’t.

They want this to be this way and no one forces them to be in Negan’s bed sometimes. And they sure as hell wouldn’t have killed him.

And more. It is a show. It’s suppose to be entertaining. Maybe he would be dead in the real life, maybe Rick would have been dead. But if Rick would die in the next episode, because a walker appeared out of nowhere and has bit him, would it be entertaining? Nope. That is why we watch the story we watch, because in that actually story things are turning out interesting. It’s not a documentary.

Don’t you have a lot of words! Wow! Big fucking word bank on sliusarek! I mean you really know it all! Just know every damn thing there is to know, don’t you? I feel blessed just knowing you’re here sliusarek! The free world where we can ALL have an opinion just got that much bigger because of you. Well I for one THANK YOU!

Hot damn!
That was GREAT.
I do believe that Sherry is taking Dwight’s storyline as a contact from Saviors from the comics. Who will take her role later on? That is a damn mystery to me.
Eugene’s transformation seems great. To everyone who thinks he’s plotting – you’re completely wrong. Dwight? Yeah, he could plot. But Eugene is a coward. It doesn’t make him a bad person, but with how the Saviors are, he fits there completely and he gets all he ever wanted – a house, an ability to take whatever he wants, no need to be scared of anybody below him and you know… pickles. You’ve gotta understand that a whole lot of people would let go of anything if they were in Eugene’s situation. Negan gave all of them a hard post-traumatic syndrom and speaking more lightly, stirred up the hell in their brains. Then Eugy witnessed what N. is capable of. and being a part of it, that’s would his character would do – change sides. All the losses brought back this side of him.
And just look on the pills. It is so easy for him to kill Negan, but he clearly doesn’t want him dead.

Dwight, on the other hand, seemed fishy. I mean, by this point, he should have already be in cahoots with Rick, but he totally isn’t. Sherry was quite a bitch to him and I do not see him turning on Negan and getting to work with Rick and the company. He’s on his “dark side” now.

Loved the first 5 minutes. Usually, stuff that you see in sneak peaks is not really exciting, that is why I try to avoid watching them, but this moment with Eugene getting out, Dwight seeing Daryl’s gone – that was just amazing. So thrilling and exciting!

The soundtrack for this season is really good. We didn’t get so much original tunes in previous tunes, but now we have lots and lots of great ones that work very well for the scenes. I can only imagine what kind of epic stuff I’ll hear when All Out War will rage on.

Three complaints I do have:
1. Negan should have had his beard on in the show. I am a fan of the comic and I love both versions of Negan, but Jeffrey looks more intimidating and unique with some beard on. Just a slight complainy-note I wanted to put light on.
2. I’m not sure that the comic Negan would do such thing with Dr. Carson… I’m gonna need to think about this more, but right now it looks a bit out of character. I don’t like the attitude of just some crazy-ass douche that can kill in a second without an actual reason. Abraham and Glenn – to protect the order of things, it was needed; Spencer and Olivia – first one would get Rick killed and second one… “that didn’t need to happen”. In fact, Carson is the only doctor they have, replacing him with Eugene seems totally dumb (when Negan isn’t). I mean, Eugene did say that he has some knowledge in biology and he can make stuff, but he never even tried to put a bandage on someone! At least, Negan should have tested Eugy and make sure that he does have some skills.
3. CGI on the walker looked really bad. I didn’t like the green screen in episode 10 (junk) and now this walker… I would more like them to avoid these moments or write them differently, or tell Greg Nicotero to cast his spells, because it really looked bad. Tiger, on the other hand, is awlays pretty believable.

Overall, this is totally kicking. 7th season is already my favorite in the whole series even, tough, I haven’t seen the rest of 7B yet. So much character development, so much new OST, great moments, homage to the comics and just overall such a deep feel to it.

I think that too, but I do believe he’s mulling things over. He’s got a sort of stability for today, but when the group attacks, he’ll side with whichever group seems to have the advantage ’cause ultimately, he wants the best chance to live in relative safety.

Yes, he has a heart and would normally support our group, but Eugene is still broken. Being beaten, watching his bestie & Glenn die so horribly messed him up so badly, he hasn’t been the same since – he hasn’t healed yet. Then bitchy Rosita bullies him into making that bullet against his better judgement, resulting in 2 deaths and his own capture. The hurt, guilt & shame… I’m not so sure where his head is right now.

Yup. That was very satisfying. 🙂 Also shows the difference between Daryl and Eugene. TWD has always been very gentle and crafty with these little thingies that actually improve the characters and provide more clear vision for us.

The title for a next episode is “Say Yes”, which is q quote of what Rick has said to Spencer back in E04. Also he is growing his beard back. Which I consider to be a hint of Rick getting back his badass survivor mojo, which is COOL.

Personally I was hoping for more in the episode. Nothing against Josh or the actual storyline of the episode but I wish they would have included more content about some of the other characters. My issue is that we have so very few episodes and I am such an impatient person I want to see as much as possible transpire before the end of the season. It was nice to see some of the day to day life of the poor saps at the Sanctuary, and it is always a pleasure to see JDM in action :). I agree that Dwight and Eugene are faking it. I wonder if he got in over his head by trying to BS Negan into believing he is a Dr. Now, with no real doctor, is Negan going to stick Eugene in that roll? That is what you get when you make shit up!

This episode is up there with “Sing Me A Song” for me. LOVED IT!!! Nice return to Sanctuary this week and excellent character development from Dwight, Eugene and Negan. The way Negan threw Doc. Carson in the furnace: DAYUM! Hopefully, we’ll get back to Sanctuary soon. This is definitely one of my favorite episodes! Love Negan and Dwight and how complex this story line is becoming. Will Daryl run into Sherry? Hmmm…

Comic readers, anyone else thinks that Negan killing the doctor was out of character and just dumb? I mean, he’s the only doctor in there. Yeah, Eugene did say he can learn things and he may become a medical surgeon and considering how much knowledge he has – he can do it within less than a month. But they’ll have wounds during that time and what if something happens to Eugene?
It’s not even that he’s the only doctor. It”s just not what Negan does.I’ll go into details down here.

Take Eugene’s situation and Rosita shooting Negan. Rosita was the one who tried to shoot him and he didn’t go to kill her. He took Eugene and caught two fishes at once: made Rosita feel guilty (guilty also means passive) and acquired a great craft-man. And now the question: if he can kill doctor Carson just because he “was” in ties with Sherry and was co-responsible for Daryl’s escape, why he kept Eugene then? Eugene’s bullet made it possible for Rosita to try break the main rule of Negan’s people – to kill him.
It just breaks the system of his actions and hurts the character.
Both comic and TV version are very emotional and they have their moments of rage outbursts, but he is not dumb and he can control himself. Killing is the last option. “You don’t kill them. Unless you try a little’. Hell, what’s the point? Carson was a coward and Negan knew it. You burn half his face – you get yourself another Dwight or Eugene. Every single man is valuable to Negan, sparing C. just like that? What’s the damn point?

Also I find very naive to just believe Dwight’s story about him killing Sherry and Carson being in ties with her. Did he give any proofs? No! Even Governor (and he was a complete crazy-ass maniac who has killed all his little army because of one outburst), even he demanded Merle to give some proofs about killing Michonne.

I get it. The whole situation was made up for Eugene, but it just doesn’t connect. Negan is not some Joker or the Governor. And with everything that is going on in the comic book right now, I really don’t think it would be fitting for TV Negan to take that story, to change and understand his mistakes after All Out War.

Same thing they had with Maggie and The Governor. When Governor told her to take her shirt off and was about to rape her, but somewhy (there was no explanation why he didn’t) and obviously, because they thought it was too dark to show, he didn’t.

It amazes me how overall the writing is brilliant, but they have one or two moments like this with some characters (especially, villains), when it’s like they don’t know who their characters are and what they would do.

I get where you’re coming from & you make good points for some great conversation. It kinda caught me & my household off guard a little & prompted a discussion about it. The more I think about it, the more I feel that goes towards Negan’s psychosis. He’s totally unpredictable & maybe he makes an effort to be that way, because that’s a lot more menacing & fear-provoking. He’s also a man who gets whatever he wants, so it may be convenient for him to try & hold onto an MD that he already has, but surely no one in any position is irreplaceable. He prefers to break people down, but I think he’d kill anyone, regardless of who they are or what they can do, if he felt it was necessary for him to sustain his leadership, because he’d value that above all else. In fact, now that I’m pondering it a little deeper, there’s the possibility that Negan can see right through Dwight & he went along with Dwight’s lie & killed Doc Carson simply so it would fuck with Dwight’s mind. To him, that would be more enjoyable & worth the fact that the Doc would have to be replaced. Anyone can tell you that I have a wild imagination, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this is actually revealed a little later to be the case. To repeat what I said in the latest comic discussion post, THAT’S the Negan I know!
*Good stuff! 😉

That’s a really good point you have! I mean, he believed Dwight without any doubts at all. He says “I’m Negan” – done; he says “I killed Sherry” – done and he says “Carson’s in” – boom.
And if we follow your point with Negan playing along, that opens up some neat explanation.

We both know Negan is bored with cowards and those who can’t stand up for themselves. Well, Carson was a coward and we ought to think that Eugene is, too, but let’s see the scene where he told Negan about his doctorate and stuff. He was afraid, sure, but he did not let N. to make fun of him. He has made it very clear that he knows things and is valuable. I think, Negan is impressed with him as he was with Daryl or Dwight. Impressed with how Eugy can be a coward and not to be one at the same time. It would impress anyone.
And the explanation I was talking about is kinda more simplistic and it uses your theory about playing along. Here it is: kill the true coward (doctor) to gain an interesting subject and a much more valuable craft-man. And hell, it did work. Eugene did not give to the girls those pills that might have killed Negan. Fear-instrument has worked perfectly on Eugy.
ANd Dwight… well, I guess Negan has him on a “back-burner”. He doesn’t trust him completely (I don’t think he ever did), but he wants to get more proofs to do something.
I also have remembered one crazy line that Negan used – “I would burn the other side of his face until he dies”. He was trying to scare Dwight and why would you scare anyone if you trust him so much that you can kill one of the only doctors that are left.

Now that we have talked about it and came up with our two versions, I do believe that you or me are thinking right. Scott and the writers care deeply about Negan and seeing how brilliant the writing for this season was, I don’t think they would allow something to break such an important character.

Bingo on the Dr Carson execution. Negan is a master gamesmen and enjoys making people sweat it out. Now Eugene will sweat it out, Dr Eugene Smartypants that is. Negan killed the Doctor, now everyone knows that NO ONE is indispensable. He would give the impression of expecting Dr Smartypants to be the new Doc, which of course would be an epic failure. A lot more to doctoring then treating a wound with tea bags… flashback.
Dwight probably knows that Negan knows what really went on. I don’t believe he killed Sherry and Negan knows that.

You know what? I have some spare time and I will answer to your lame accusations and just lazy-ass comment more deeply.

Negan does has some knowledge of people’s minds and knowledge means power. Messing with people that have some bad-ass skills, does give him quite a lot of joy.

Nope. It won’t be an epic failure. You can learn everything you need to do your job within a year, if you’re smart enough. School and universities spend 5 or 4 to: a) take your money; b) pour into your brain lots and lots of stuff that you will never use working. Considering how smart Eugene is and how much time he has, he can learn all he needs to do the job in a month, as I said. You’re gonna call bullshit? Well, go make me a bullet and some poison.

As of your last part of the comment, I will not comment your lazy humor and weird bullying. You do not like how I talk – do not read my comments and save some of this amazingly poor humor for your friends. Please, do.

Oh, and I really recommend you not to write me again. I won’t read or answer it anyways. I do not enjoy being in presence of people like you. Indeed, I don’t.

my thought exactly!… when he was asking the doc what Dwight had to gain by lying, that made me think he was on to him and that he suspects Dwight didn’t kill Sherri either. So, yeah, he’s probably messing with him.
It’s possible too that the writers are reminding us that even though we like the character, Negan is evil, thus vindicating any future actions against him by Rick and the others.

It’s interesting. TWD this season appears to love killing doctors off. I guess the Hilltop has the only true doctor now. Maybe the Kingdom as well, I can’t remember if we saw one there or not.

That moment seemed out of character, even for Negan. And that’s saying a lot. One second he’s ready to iron his face, then decides naaaa, I’m just going to off one of the few guys that has the ability to save a life?

That story line could have easily been filled by someone else in the camp who was not a doctor.

So yeah, don’t really agree with that scene, or the need for it. I don’t even think it really did much to build Dwight’s character either.

I gotta disagree. When Negan is killing Carson, something is obviously weighing heavily on Dwight’s mind & I’m sure it wasn’t how best to clean up what’s left of Carson. And I keep saying this for the show & the comic: there’s more to Negan’s character than killing.

The way I read that was Dwight waiting to see if his plan to frame the doctor worked, or if Negan was on to him and was just being dramatic up to the point that he turned and threw him in the fire instead.

As far as framing Carson and Negan buying it, I see that as well. Just based on what the show has given us so far, it’s obvious Dwight’s not thrilled about Negan. We had two scenes where Carson was solidly towing the company line with Dwight (a bit overdoing it, as well). Negan’s big no-no is anyone sexing his wives but him. Dwight targets someone solidly in Negan’s corner, and cuts out the part of Sherry’s note that read “honey”. From there, let Negan’s mind wander to that place that makes him….Negan.

I’ve been dwelling on Eugene’s possibly developed Stockholm Syndrome. The moment when he says to Negan – I knew I was Negan before I met you, (I won’t put it in quotes because I doubt my accuracy.) was very intimate. Almost too much so. Also his growing need to protect Negan, and play his new role to near perfection. Something is not right. Eugene went from hysterical, shock tears to total devote.

To defend my statement about Negan’s plight in the real world, I belive there is nothing wrong with considering alternate potentials. His girls are plotting to assasinate him. I don’t see anything wrong with questioning why no one had the plot sooner. Negan has a good thing. And, I often say if the zombie apocalypse was jumping off ITRW I would be a Savior. There is an palpable security in the way that camp is run, considering the state of things. Too many irons to the face, though, and shot sandwiches someone is bound to break in the other direction. I get the feeling it is happening with Dwight, but who knows? This show is anything but predictable at times.

Since some of the earlier posts talk about favorite episodes mine is by far “The Grove”. It would be hard convincing me there is anywhere in the world a more beautifuly shot, yet scary moment than that of Lizzie playing with the zombie. In all seriousness that work is perfect. I trust if my mind should be ruined by Altzheimer’s dementia the last clear thought I would have before dieing would be a quick run of that scene. And, in my graciously available personal opinion, there is no writing going on in the show that comes close to that episode. All Eugene’s pickles and Dwight’s Freddy Kruger face, not even Rick’s fighting the molten capped spike zombie (which was super cool. and also a strange coincidence that Eugene makes the recommendation to do something very similar in this last episode. What’s that shit?) don’t prove sufficient to “The Grove”.

Been a fan of TWD since the very 1st episode. However that all changed this season. Yes I am one of those that want negan gone. The episodes without him are good as was this one for the most part but I turn it off when negan comes on. Before everybody starts bashing me, there seems to be many fans who feel the same way. Our opinion is just as valid as yours.

Respect, appreciate, & love to have friendly, mature discussions on differences in opinions myself… but gotta be honest & say I simply canNOT wrap my mind around anyone not loving to hate Negan & would go so far as to actually tune out of the show when he’s on!!! I love my bad guys BAD & Negan is the ultimate personification of that! He’s what I imagine a pre-apocalypse bad guy would turn into post-apocalypse & the world just wouldn’t be complete without those kinds. I’m sure you guys have your reasons, but I’ll just keep lifting my jaw up off the floor & pushing the word “sacrilege” to the back of my mind.

It’s probably a Glenn thing. Some hate Negan so much for what he did that it clouds their senses and they just want him suffer. I get that ’cause he’s got to pay, but I do enjoy the character. Maybe he can pay w/o dying.

Different opinion are what keeps the conversations going. If we all thought the same we would just be agreeing with each other, over and over again. Not agreeing and bashing are two different things. If people bash you for contributing to the conversation, they need to grow up.
Glad you posted!

I can understand and respect that. I know many who feel the same way. In the eyes of many, that first episode was gratuitous and a turn off.

Sadly, I think its a case of the comics not translating over to the show. I think JDM is doing a great job of Negan, however, the limitations on profane language hinder the character to a point that he is a shell of what he in in the comics.

I liked the TV show Governer much better than the comic version. I like comic book Negan immensely more. Not a knock on JDM.

Again, what works in the comics isnt necessarily the right path for the show. I am glad they went that direction. I can see why others arent.